Date:04/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/04/stories/2007100457560400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Bidadi farmers await countdown

Sharath S. Srivatsa

There is confusion among farmers on the launching of the township project

Farmers abstain from taking up any new work
Government has notified 9,178 acres of land for acquisition

BANGALORE: The farmers of Bidadi, near here, who are set to lose their lands for the Bidadi Integrated Township (BIT) Project, are postponing investment in their farms till a clear picture emerges. Though the Cabinet approved handing over the project to leading real estate developers DLF on Monday, farmers still are not sure about their future.

While a number of farmers, unhappy over the land compensation and rehabilitation package announced for those displaced and are demanding more, many have stoically accepted that they are losing their land. A case filed against the proposed acquisition by Ranganatha Raitha Hitarakshana Sangha is still pending before the Karnataka High Court.

In this situation, farms yielding healthy harvests of coconut, arecanut, banana and other crops have suffered as they received no investment, either in terms of agricultural input or monetary. “Investments on farms cannot continue when we know that the area will be acquired for the township, and farmers here have abstained from taking up any new work. We have lived with this agony for nearly one and a half years,” Gowtham, a farmer in Byramangala, one of the affected villages, told The Hindu.

The State Government has already notified 9,178 acres of land for acquisition, of which 6,336 acres of land is private holdings, 2,198 acres government land and the rest water bodies. The township will come up in Byramangala, Bannigiri, Hosur, K.G. Gollarapalya, Kanchugaranahalli, Aralalasandra, Kempaiyyanapalya, Kanchugaranahalli Kaval, Mandlahalli and Vaderahalli villages of Bidadi hobli, about 35 km from Bangalore. Mr. Gowtham said: “A state of confusion exists among the farmers and we do not know when or if the project will take off.”

Government order

Additional Metropolitan Commissioner N. Sriraman said that a Government Order on the award of project to DLF was expected within 10 days after which the process of land acquisition would commence. “The developer has to prepare a master plan and submit to Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority (BMRDA) while the land acquisition process would be initiated simultaneously,” said Additional Commissioner of BMRDA N. Sriraman.

He said that the developer had to secure many pre-project clearances such as environmental clearance, and prepare plans for layout formation, water supply and other utilities. On the agency that would initiate acquisition process, Mr. Sriraman said: “Under the law, many government agencies can initiate land acquisition process, and that the land would be acquired under Land Acquisition Act 1894.”